In Galatians 5:6, Paul declares
concerning certain ceremony-prone attitudes, that they are misplaced, and that
what is crucial is faith which works by love. It is not love which works by
faith, but the reverse of which the apostle speaks. Faith is the sublime
spiritual connection between God and man by which man trusts in the Lord for
whatever He sees fit to give, and embraces Him as friend, mentor, counsellor,
Saviour and Lord, knowing full well what He wishes to give in grace, pardon,
power, precept, propulsion and drive, patience and forbearance, courage and
consistency of life.

It is THEN that in love the
Christian can work. He is not in a sea of sentiment, but on a rock of truth.
That being so, his feet on this foundation, his spiritual nostrils snuffing the
upper air of utter purity, his mind contemplating the realities of the character
and glory of God, on whom all depends, whom in the end nothing can resist
(Isaiah 14:27, Ephesians 1:11), but who in love both seeks what He has made in
His own image, mankind, and leads those who find Him: THEN all else can follow. As to
love, it is the quality of his living, the motivation of his actions, the enduement of his peace, the calibre of his conceptions, the wonder of his life
and the constraint of his deeds.

First, faith to know, then love to
go. It never ceases to be important to know where you are going, and again, to
know how to go there, and the way in which to go, in its quality.

Faith however is often misconceived,
and instead of being seen as a connection of trust between a man, woman or
child, and the giving God, is shambled off into illicit and unverified, invalid
and strangling substitutes. It is whoever the living and eternal God, whose
testimony is long and tested. whose
covenant is sure, whose blood is shed on the tree where He became sin that we
who believe (Acts 20:28) might find Him freely, that it comes to its enabling
source. Here and here only it is participating in His action and His deed,
freely given that we might be both free
in heart and equipped with understanding, so that no more does it becomes a mere subjectivism of whatever it is that one chooses
to rely on. The subject needs its object, and the object must be the supportive
and function-making ground for faith.

In the case of Nahum, in the very
midst of one of the most chilling expositions of the fate of sin, applied to
Nineveh, where its composite, chronic wickedness, heartlessness and grasping,
rasping exhibitions of strength in subduing and raping nations is focussed,
we find the contrasts that count.

Nahum, summoned by God to speak, declares this (3:7):

"Nineveh is laid
waste!

Who will bemoan
her ?

Where shall I seek
comforters for you ?"

Again in the last verse, we hear
this:

"Your injury has
no healing,

Your wound is
severe.

All who hear news
of you

Will clap their
hands over you,

For upon whom has
not your wickedness passed continually ?"

By contrast, they who wait upon the
Lord, instructed as to the course of faithfulness, enabled in adversity,
merciful in disposition, find this:

"The LORD is good,

A stronghold in
the day of trouble,

And He s knows
those who trust in Him."

Faith receives Him as He is! Love
proceeds for Him as He leads.

There are wars beyond these wars,
for example there is that of the flesh against the spirit, as seen in the same
chapter 5 of Galatians:

"For the flesh lusts
against the Spirit,

and the Spirit
against he flesh,

and these are
contrary to one another,

so that you do not
do the things that you wish.

But if you are led
by the Spirit, you are not under the law...

And those who are
Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit."

Where the ... break is made (in
the verses cited above), Paul spells out the list of works of the flesh and
living qualities absorbed in the Spirit, and truly each picture, each depiction
is stunning in simplicity, elevating in perspective, while the contrast is like
that between this world and the next. Yet for the Christian, it is import time,
time to import by the blood of Christ, for liberty and access, by the power of
the Spirit for application, those good things which the world loves to speak
well of, when not in a contrary passion, but hates to do. Yet if it seems to do some of them, it loves to exalt
itself in the doing, so that pride and self-will become an anodyne to the horror
of actually doing some good thing in the grace, in the love and for the praise
of God only, to whom all praise belongs!

However, among the qualities of
goodness, there are these: faithfulness and love. The former requires the
knowledge of faith, so that it is to God and not to oneself or another that one
is faithful; and the latter requires the knowledge of the source, which removes
the subjectivity and distortion of second class copies of those who cope as they
see fit, and not according to the divine design, where purity is not an
incident, but the air you breathe.

Faith then needs attention. Let us
consider it among the vagaries which seek to use the name, or deserve it only in
comic or contorted style, but fail to have the substance.

Faith and
Subversive Substitutes

FEATURES
AND FOCI IN FAITH - Nahum 1:8

"The Lord is
good, a stronghold in the day of trouble,
and He knows those who trust in Him;
but with an overflowing flood, He will make an utter end of its place,
and darkness will pursue His enemies."

This is our keynote verse as we
ponder FAITH. That God is good, like the flowers of the Golden Showers
creeper, the glory of the stout-hearted oak, the tingling exhilaration of
oxygen-rich pure air, is foundational to all thought, practice and life. To
accuse Him of sin who made liberty which begets sin through lust of various
kinds, is mere madness; for all depends on Him, He needs nothing and provides
all, including the darkness which pursues His enemies, as in John 3:19,3:36.
There is reason for it; if you turn out the light, that is what is left; and
what is left pursues what is righteous, as did Judas the Lord; and this is its
way.

Yet the Lord is a stronghold in
the day of trouble, and He KNOWS those who trust in Him. This is the second
great feature. I KNOW MY SHEEP and they FOLLOW ME! (John 10). You, He says
Israel, are "the descendants of Abraham, My friend!"
What a place to be in, to be the friend of God! Yet Christ Himself
(John 15) declared, "No longer do I call you servants,
for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you
friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made know to you."
Earlier, He declared this: "You are My friends if you do
whatever I command you." Despite lapses or little faith here or there,
they were now His friends. He knows, you see, those who put their trust in
Him. That is faith, but it has many substitutes, and four of these we see
below. Let us regard it.

I
FORMAL FAITH - II Timothy 3:1-5

Here there is a form which is
featured, a mode of speaking, of looking, an attitude that this is what one
does, ceremonies in which one participates, here is the regulatory religious
body, and one seeks not to offend it. One goes to church, or Satan worship, or
whatever else fills the chosen bill, and that is the skin over one's life; but
it never touches the heart: yet if it does, it is as what is outside, and
there is no love, trust and security. It may lead to lust, to hatred, to
murder, or to giving a pittance; it may become a feature, like beer and footy,
but is an external thing, either in behaviour or in its rites. It may impel,
but it does not control. It may impassion, but it does not lead. It may be
changed and exchange: it is chosen. However Christ declared this:
"You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you."

In formal faith, you do not trust
in the POWER of God: either there is no power or it is not of God. The
ultimate, intimate, internally reigning God of all comfort is not yours, in
this artifice. You are one natural object, and it is another, and if the
so-called 'supernatural' enters in, it too is a natural object, a mystery or a
thought, an idea or a culture, or even an evil spirit, like the devil, to
whose hand your soul is simply sold. It neither reigns nor rules and evokes
hope, at best, but faith has no end in it, for it ends, like all the rest of
creation, without God.

This is the kind shown in II
Timothy 3, predicted for perversion of faith at the end of the Age:
"having a form of godliness but denying its power."
"From such people turn away", we are told, for they are
"always learning but never able to come to the knowledge
of the truth." Christianity is their lair, but their excesses can spill
like liquid, into any domain as they veer and sneer, leer and luxuriate in
being lost. Many linger with them, and are lost.

II
FICTIONAL FAITH - Isaiah 7:10-14.

Here there is the appearance of
actual faith, but it has learned never to put itself on the spot where action
has meaning; for its object is a fiction, it lives a story, and there is no
story teller: God Himself is missing. In the above prophecy, King Ahaz of
Judah, a tricky, deviating denizen of spiritual drabness, is offered UNLIMITED
help through the prophet Isaiah, as he confronts an impossible seeming team of
enemies now at his door.

In answer, he does not say, "I do
not believe," nor does he decline, averring, "Who is God that I should serve
Him! " It is faith, you see, but fictional; for it does not actually work.
Instead, he cries, "I will not ask, nor will I test the
Lord." In this, he uses the WORDS of faith, as if sanctity forbad him
to dare to actually ask God for anything real; but he refuses the offer being
made. He wants to appear religious, not to be faithful; to talk religion, but
in an inoperative manner. God's reply ?

"Hear now, O
house of David!
Is it a small thing for you to weary men,
but will you weary my God also!"

Isaiah then predicts the coming
virgin birth of the Messiah, further itemised in Isaiah 9,with His works then
foretold in 11, 32, 49-55, 61 and so on; but it will not help Judah, for just
as they did not ASK in FAITH, what was OFFERED by divine authority from God,
so do they not GET the things most important. Yet these great things, they had
them shown to them, though it came for another generation! God is not
mocked. Those who believed received.

III
FICTITIOUS FAITH - Zechariah 11, John 6:70, Matthew 26:14-16.

Here there is an inwardly
acknowledged lack of faith. It is not just little, it is not even in hospital,
sick: it is absent. Judas, for example, ACTIVELY PLANNED to betray Christ, had
the whole episode worked out to the last monetary unit - 30 to be precise,
just as Zechariah 11:12 predicted for the sale of the Lord, declaring it, with
irony, a 'princely price.' That was the price of
God, and many have more expensive ones, this the price of land. The walk in
the company of the people of God, in the sight of His actions did nothing to
alter the walk of the heart, which had other objectives, and found God not
convenient.

IV FUNCTIONAL
FAITH - Luke 10:30ff.

In this illustration, a man was in
trouble, a victim of robberies, left lying by the road. Religiosity passed
him, dressed in robes. They knew, the priest and the Levite, HOW to look after
number one, in their functional faith, their use of God for their own
purposes, speaking the right words, perhaps, but not doing them, deploying God
as a bulwark against flood, or a comfort feature and focus in life, but
knowing nothing at all of saving faith.

Save ? What was there to save but
themselves from difficulties and their lives from shame! What is all this, for
the number one question is the number one person, oneself.

TO die daily is religious verbiage
(I Corinthians 15:31, II Corinthians 4:11, Galatians 2:20), and to sacrifice
for the Lord in the love of God is a foreign language. Their 'faith' is a
fidget function of craving personality, and its centre and focus is
themselves. It took a man with heart to show the concern that the others
lacked, and this concern exemplifies what faith does in its life, not just in
this or that case, but as a characteristic: it seeks to SERVE GOD HIMSELF, and
His commands are signs and signals on the way.

V SAVING
FAITH - Matthew 16:13-16, Luke 22:61-62

In this case, we see Peter
examined with the rest by the Lord Jesus Christ, and asked to identify Him.
Peter declared that He was the Son of the living God, the Christ. Flesh and
blood did not reveal this to you, said Jesus, but My Father who is in heaven.

This is faith which starts with
God, in believing in Him, proceeds with Christ, in receiving both Him and His
testimony, continues as did Peter, in walking with the Lord and meeting the
challenges of time, as after Gethsemane, in the garden, when soldiers of test
came. It may waver, as Peter did, but is contrite as Peter was (Luke
22:61-62): "

"And
the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter.
And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him, Before
the cock crows, you will deny Me thrice.
And Peter went out, and wept bitterly."

Saving faith is not perfected
faith, but operational faith. If you fall, you arise, having repented, and you
seek as Peter did, the face of the Lord (John 21:7); nothing will hold or
delay you, because you believe. Does the financier doubt when he sees that the
price falls, and his shares are in danger ? Money is his desire, action is his
necessity. There is no 'talk'. He acts. If GOD is your desire, and your ways
are in peril, then you act. You do not luxuriate in talk: you walk, yes run!
Moreover, you do not merely run TO Him, as did the rich young ruler, only to
talk and go; but you run to seek forgiveness, and CONTINUE to walk with Him,
in all He desires you to do.

Saving faith has identified who
God is, where the truth lies, has repented of lies, and has arisen to take the
offered gift of eternal life, and thus having received the Lord, finds Him
through the power of the Spirit of God who resides in all Christians. He is
"the guarantee of our inheritance" (Ephesians
1:14), just as the Lord Himself is the ground and His word the rock (Matthew
7:24ff.) of those who are "kept by the power of God
through faith for salvation", even the resurrection of the body (John
6:39-40, Romans 8:23). These, believing Him and this, are irrevocable in
their conviction, facing whatever it takes with peace and power, revived in
extremity, delivered in places impossible to man, living in the grace of God,
because it is HE whom they desire, whom they trust. HE, it is He who is a
stronghold in the day of trouble, and He KNOWS those who trust in Him.

He does not merely know OF them,
just as they do not merely know OF Him. He knows them and they know Him (John
10:27-28). It is a thing of head and heart, sinew and strength, and it is with
all, that they love Him, and it shows, just as does a love for children, or
relatives, or other friends; but this love outdoes all others, for it is
foundational, not fictional, far less fictitious.

There is one more sub-type in
'faith', one ought to mention, and that is blind faith, and that is one which
lacks knowledge, exercise the will for the thrill or the pride or the
self-belief, making of man the criterion and of Christ a word; and this type
being unenlightened, like anything else blind, has all the scope for collision
with reality which it deserves.

"He said
Christ, who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life"
(John 8:12).

FAITH WORKING
BY LOVE, AN EXAMPLE ?

There is a simplicity about faith. You trust. There is an actuality about
Christian faith: you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh,
enshrined in His word by depiction with precision, foretold in His word with
exactitude, with history as it comes following His own words (cf. SMR Ch. 9. The Pitter-Patter…
Ch. 4,),
and those of the Old Testament which is through His Spirit (I Peter 1), obeying
His diction with fidelity.

You
live in an environment which is first of all, that of God. The air is further
away, as are the land and the sea, the stars for all their beauty, and the
social complexities which man invents as if he had nothing better to do, than to
delve into darkness and ignore the light which one might desire, but not find,
because it exposes wickedness (John 3:20). What is this which elects itself to
determine the scope and nature of its spirit, often while denying its very
existence with that spiritual power which is part of having a spirit, and fails
to find the Author of freedom and Father of understanding, asserted in one's
very body, exhibited in the scope of one's mind, and provided like the sun in
its heavens! Darkness is its name, and preferred darkness is its guilt.

When however life is by faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ,

whom God carefully sent in the flesh, as He declared He would
(Isaiah 48:16),

to do what He resolved to be necessary (Isaiah 52-53),

with the
liberating results He promised (Isaiah 55), available freely;

so that He thereby exhibited His
power,
not less but rather more than in the entire creation in the process
(Psalm 16, Matthew 26-28), testifying to purity and grace and love and light as
a MAN amongst men,
and this without ceasing to be Himself, both in patience and in power:

then it works by love.

It is insightful and not sloppy; but it is chaste and it is keen. It was so keen
in its original, God Himself, that He did not hesitate to give, give His only
begotten Son to shame from the shammers, and contempt from the contemptible, in
order that they and any others might be forgiven and restored to the image of
God (Isaiah 53:2-6, Colossians 3:10), and to Himself for ever.

That is a work fit for any time, and
given to our time (Galatians 4:4).

In the midst of these things, many
distortions have come as we have seen in discussing faith; but many have
reflected faith which works by love, as Paul declares it.

Take Ruth. Now to be sure, she is
more often thought of as LOVING, and so she is; but back of that love is FAITH.

Let us consider it.The events are simple. She was the wife of one of
two emigrés,
men from ancient Israel who went with their mother in a famine time, to Moab.
Interestingly, the site from which they emigrated was Bethlehem.

In time, both sons died, each having
first married a Moabitess. The mother resolved to return to her land, in some
bitterness, as one who had suffered hardship, but with a strong resolve and a
vigorous spirit. She advised the two daughters-in-law, now widows, to return to
their own land and gods. In this, of course, she made a mistake: not in advising
them to remain and to avoid a perilous transplant, for movement to another
country always has the danger of unknowns, and life can be extinguished or
mutilated in spirit or mind or body, quite quickly if it is not soundly based,
and that by mere forces of strange devices, which those in the land from birth, know
quite well.

No, it was not in that, but in
actually counselling to return to their land AND to their gods, that she erred. On the other
hand, this was a test. Tests however should not include any element of
temptation. Yet test it was. WOULD anyone want to come with her ? IF SO, it
would have to be BY FAITH, for coming by affection would be blind. Wonderful as
affection can be, it is not faith. It is not light, but rather a part of the atmosphere in which
it shines.

One only of the two decided to come,
and her expression of love is famous; but what needs to be noticed is this, that
it is a paramount expression of faith also.

"Entreat me
not to leave you,

Orto turn back from following after you;

For wherever
you go, I will go;

And wherever
you lodge, I will lodge;

Your people
shallbe my people,

And your
God, my God.

17

Where you die, I will die,

And there
will I be buried.

The Lord do
so to me, and more also,

If anythingbut death parts you and me."

At once, one perceives the devotion
to the mother-in-law. It is brilliant in conviction, stern in determination and
practical in kind. Yet it is also faith. The GOD of Naomi, the mother-in-law, is
to be that of Ruth, and this is not only for travelling purposes, but this love
is strong as death, for it is to be till death itself comes. NOTHING is to part
them, neither distance, nor home, nor wandering.

Consider the works of this faith.
Take what Ruth AVOIDED.

Neither culture, her own with its
ways and gods, nor fear of the unknown (but God was known), nor example
(following sister-in-law, at first inclined to come, but then on being exhorted
by Naomi, thinking better of it), nor laziness (it took a substantial effort of
mind and will and body, to re-locate nationally), nor pride (not wanting to
lower herself to be an alien in need
of acceptance), nor resentment (comparison of her changing lot with the settled
appearance of satisfaction of those who could merely continue as they were):
none of these things could influence her, or if they did, persuade her. SHE
WOULD GO!

Consider again what she did. It
involved consecration, dedication, discipline, wholeheartedness, obedience, no
reservations, and above all, faith. She was not going as one drawn in two ways,
with her heart festering in the midst of regrets, or poignancies which could
destabilise it. She was going as with the God whose ways she had observed in all
the years of her married life in the presence of her parents-in-law, and
latterly Naomi. It was an impenetrable conviction, cutting off all comparison,
like the light of the sun which shines to illuminate and particularise what one
sees.

Conceive further what resulted. She
married Boaz, the great grandfather of David the King, one of what are perhaps the
three most outstanding kings in Israel's history: Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah and
David. She became progenitor to Solomon, in his commercial might, brilliance of
mind and proverbial strength, the man who ruled a considerable kingdom with
immense wealth and notoriety. This David, moreover, was a prophet of eminence,
giving much of the detail of the Messiah, who was to come through his own family
line as far as the mother of the Christ is concerned; and hence on the human
side, Ruth was one of the progenitors of Jesus Christ, who is the manifest pivot of the
universe, the axle of history and the light of this world. Again, her record is
in the very Bible which God has given, and so it has been for millenia, read by
millions and millions for century upon century.

What then do we learn from Ruth ? We
see the point of avoidance of the merely ephemeral, and the value of faith,
faith which works by love, for her love for Naomi was stupendous, practical,
geared to the heart of the matter, the God of Naomi. At the same time we learn
of the commitment which from the outset, knew what it was doing, and so, as we
read in the further detail of this fascinating book, knew what to do when
various choices had to be made in passing.

We learn of the vitality of faith in
the midst of startling negatives: Ruth had no husband, no children, no remaining
native land if she left, no initial support, and the projected loss of
mother-in-law, had she merely waited in her own land. She had by marriage
obtained a failing family, it might have seemed, father in law dead, two sons
dead, mother in law on the point of leaving.

This indicates the wonder of being faithful in any vexatious or challenging part
of one's life, knowing that God has His purpose, and that faith waits on Him for
its occurrence, whether it be a famous death when young, as with Stephen, or
when older, as with Paul, work in deprivation by faith, as with Paul's
missionary exploits, yet equipped with contentment from the God of all comfort,
or a long life as with John the apostle, himself not fond of sea as his island
of Patmos expulsion gave ground for bitterness, which he avoided, and
production, which he embraced.

Thus by faith not only is there
found the vice that grapples in its arms, vice to be avoided, but the triumph of victory.
This is by abiding in the mind of God, where His planning is to be obtained. Nor is it without trials, as a hurdle may be
knocked down here or there, without fatal loss, to teach resilience and patience, care and
conscientiousness, self-control and wisdom on the way.

As to Naomi, in the twin errors of a
temporary measure of bitterness (Ruth 1:13), and of the way she put
the test to Ruth and her other daughter-in-law, above noted: even there in her
weakness (apparently quite out of character), she teaches us. Admittedly, then,
despite wonderful
kindness and concern, Naomi was in error on two points; but the Lord was not
harsh, for His commandments are not grievous, and His gentleness makes for
greatness, for He is a gracious teacher (Matthew 23:8-10). This inclines us, this very fact with
Naomi so blessed, and moves to enhance faith; for our confidence is not in
ourselves, or in our own perfections, imaginary or vaunted, but in Christ. It
also teaches us that little is lost in testing oranges to see if they are
oranges. If they are, a simple test will not reveal them to be lemons. The test
to Ruth, taken by faith, was not only a confirmation of her genuineness, but a
lead to her life of wonder in the Lord.

There is in Christian faith working
by love, a prescription which avoids the dead energies of hatred, expressing its
pungencies in puny self-modelled desires, the lavish luxuries of deadly
vehemence, self-manufactured and made the modes of inglorious invention and
acrid intention: things that populate this world like solder ants on parade, in
their teeming invasion forces to ravage.

This prescription-description of
Paul in Galatians 5:6: it embraces the truth. It shows in its referent,
what nothing else either has or can have, the God of truth whose power in this
world is not muted by mutilation, His own Son being an exemplar that death is
merely an incident, important to be sure, and not without its being precious in
the eyes of the Lord, for His saints.

He, the Lord, to whom the faith is
directed and from whom the love comes (Romans 5:5), He knows what He is going to
do, and proves it in prophecy, performs it in fulfilling His many promises. This
He does,
whether as we have seen, in restoring Israel to its land after nearly two millenia, or in its mighty military victories as foretold (Zechariah 12:1-10),
as will the forthcoming repentance of many in Israel in masses, in due course,
after this return (Zech. 12:10-13:1); or individually.

Thus this national case has much
that is parallel to the individual case. After a life in sinful
carelessness concerning the reality of God (of which false religion is merely
one example, and false prophets are merely one door of entry), man may be brought
back by the only promised cover, Jesus Christ, through His Spirit, and paid for
by His blood, win mighty victories over the flesh, the world and the devil, and
working by faith through love, find the promises of God as solid as rock, and
His kindness so clear, clean and beautiful as to constitute a combination of
hygiene, holiness, affection and friendship, mixed with power, enlightenment and
grace, so that the love of God grows like a vine about the house of faith.

It is a beautiful thing and to be
desired, to love mankind that God has made, and to be especially concerned for
the people who are His ; it is delightful to have of His goodness, a spring, and
to seek good for those whom He has made. It does not of course mean seeking to
help them mutilate their spirits, but it does mean grace with forbearance, and
helpfulness as the God of all truth enables it. If this were done, the world
would escape judgment; but it is not done, and this life is by its absence, the
toll of doom for a world which with its own works, is to be burnt up, having by
a narrow margin already survived the flood (II Peter 3:3-5, 3:10ff.)

To this it is
pointed, so that one British scientist is considering other planets, and that
poignantly: for this one, this earth is so good... and the loss of the ground
under the feet, will eventually but mirror the ground for disfaith which already
has long since gone(SMR,
TMR). Because man is neglecting his
Maker, therefore he is finding, as Christ so clearly and incisively foretold
(Matthew 24:12-22), that the earth is being spoiled as surely as young lives by
other and more physical drugs. That, it is what one would expect from such a
dire disjunction! Exclude faith, which follows divine directions, impugn love by
survival of the fittest magics, and the earth reels, as if man were seeking to
add to the curse already imposed, in some kind of retro-confusion for progress.

It is time to find gratitude for
this earth, for its foretold history, for our meaning, our proper meat to do the
will of God (John 4:34); as for our liberty to deny, for that is the
product of our capacity to love, of freedom itself, created by God as an apex of
wonder in His installations on this earth. It is not however at all time to show
our joy in liberty, by disjoining grace from life, by means of it. Life minus
grace is disgrace; and this is not merely emotional; it is the final
summons on the way.

We do not have to move to
space (cf. A Spiritual Potpourri Chs.
1-3), in fact are prohibited from seeking to rule in this domain (Psalm 115),
which mankind is continually littering with variously vicious debris, with
penalties mounting; we
do have to move to our Father, through His propitiatory sacrifice Jesus Christ,
and as a prelude to repent of not having done so earlier (Luke 13:1-3), of not
being born in a race of angelic beauty (Psalm 51:5), since our very
commencements are now defiled; and it is no use seeking to apportion blame.
Where we are, when without Christ in this world, we should not be; and to repent of error whether inherited or
activated, it is all one. If it is wrong, it is to be rejected and acknowledged,
for the inherent case is not only acquired, but ignoble.

It is time for thankfulness that
there IS a way, and for action, if it is not already taken, that it MAY be
taken; for God is love, and the invitation is as real as Calvary, as consistent
as the illumination of light, and as sure as His word (Isaiah 55, John 7:37,
4:14, Colossians 1:19ff., John 3:16ff.). Its offer is free, it is final and it
is irremovable, immutable and beautiful alike (Galatians 1:6-9, 3, Titus 3:3-7).
All we need to leave is the consignment in spirit to the cultures of this world,
and to find Christ instead, who has come to seek and to save what is lost. It is
however to seek the LORD's CHRIST (Luke 2:26), not some innovation of fancy (II
Cor. 11).The coming, it is from the clammy hand of corrupted culture and to the
clean Christ of desire, whom God has preserved firstly in the
resurrection, and secondly in the Bible, having no fancy for the sacrifice of
eternal wonder in His only begotten Son, only to have Him unknown.

Faith, it finds these things,
because, being sure, they may be rested on; and as to Him, the Messiah, Jesus
Christ, His resting place,
let this Gentile solemnly attest IS glorious (as He predicted it would be for
the Gentiles in Isaiah 11:10).